After more than two years and 100 articles, this is my last OnlineSpin column for Mediapost. It's been fun sharing what I've learned during a career working in media and startups. But now that I've
transitioned from ad tech to HR tech, it's time to hand the microphone to someone new.

Until recently, I sold products based on the relationships that I had formed during career in media and advertising. Agencies like GroupM, OMG and Starcom Mediavest were accessible to me because of
the people I knew and the people they knew. I took pride in the fact that I could sell products based solely on my connections. I don't think that way anymore.

One of my favorite Mediapost articles ever written is "The Power of No" by Dave Morgan. In it, Dave describes how the word "no" can be useful in business: "Learning how and when to use the word is a
vital lesson. This is true whether you are in sales, client service or product development. It's particularly true in start-up companies, where resources are scarce, historical guidance is short, and
making too many promises is devastatingly more dangerous than making too few." Another important aspect to the "power of no" is how you handle being on the other side of the word --when you are
rejected. As Mike Tyson famously said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Here are some of the ways you can be rejected in business, and how you should respond:

A few years ago, I achieved an unexpected level of financial security. For a decade I had worked in media planning, an industry not known for its exorbitant salaries. But through some basic techniques
I was able to secure a decent nest egg. Here's what I learned along the way:

What generation comes after the Millennials, the massive generation that is now swamping the U.S. workplace with people born between 1980 to 2000? The Homeland Generation. Born after 9/11, the oldest
members of this generation are now entering middle school. I have two Homelanders living under my roof, boys aged 9 and 11. They are unique compared to other generations that have come before them.
Here's how:

Given the demand for engineers and salespeople, recruiting plays an essential role in the media and technology industry. Finding great people can be difficult, and recruiters can help. But there are
some recruiters - especially the younger, more aggressive tech recruiters - who act unprofessionally. Here are some examples:

The market for salespeople, account managers and engineers is so fierce today that recruiters, startups and established companies are all trying to attract the best talent. How will you retain your
top performers in the face of such competition? The key is to build a culture and process that naturally repels your competitors. Here are 10 steps for building a company that can retain its top
employees:

Over the past 24 months, I've published 500 articles on the subject of media and technology on my blog, The Makegood. During that time, the site received 100,000 unique visitors and over a quarter
million page views. Along the way, I learned a few things about what it takes to create a successful blog, including:

How do high-growth companies manage their people and teams today? Increasingly, the answer is with OKRs: Objectives and Key Results. Originally invented at Intel, OKRs were adopted by Google in 1999
when the company was less than a year old. Since then, many other companies have adopted some form of OKRs, including a growing number of media companies. Essentially, OKRs are a way to set company
objectives and then establish how each employee will contribute to those goals. While the process sounds simple, there are certain characteristics that make OKRs unique, including:

From my office on 34th Street near Herald Square in Manhattan, I can look uptown and see the world of media as it is today. GroupM, a few blocks away on 7th Avenue, is the world's largest buyer of
media from the world's largest sellers. Another agency behemoth, Mediavest, is further uptown at Broadway and 52nd Street. This is where all of the power in advertising -and 90% of advertising
budgets-has migrated over the past few decades. Advertising's creative revolution is just a hazy, boozy memory at this point. Even Y&R has moved from its home on Madison Avenue uptown to Columbus
Circle.

Fantastic article, Dave. As you know Pictela has spent that last two years having precisely this conversation with marketers. Some other great examples of this Content Marketing philosophy in action are Apple's TV ads (effectively 30 second product demos), movie trailers/tune in spots, and catalogs (LL Bean, etc.).